National team men’s doubles coach Sigit Pamungkas is set to resign from the Cipayung national training camp and return to his club, Jaya Raya.
The Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) confirmed the news on Wednesday, saying it agreed to release the coach so he could help train the country’s top men’s doubles pair of Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan for the 2012 London Olympics.
“Sigit has been assigned to help prepare Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan to defend their Olympic gold medal in London,” Lius Pongoh, head of the PBSI’s training camp, told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday.
“Owing to the fact that [Markis and Hendra] resigned from the camp earlier this year and have been training at Jaya Raya ever since, we allowed Sigit to resign in order to train them at the club.”
Lius said the PBSI would soon begin its hunt for a replacement and would approach several candidates, though he declined to reveal their names.
He said Sigit was expected to submit an official resignation letter as early as next week.
“Though it is hard for me to leave the training camp, I really want to help Markis and Hendra win the Olympics again,” Sigit said.
Under Sigit’s guidance, the pair won the 2008 Olympic gold medal in Beijing, but they parted ways with their coach earlier this year when they decided to resign from the camp to become professional shuttlers.
Despite struggling throughout the season, Markis and Hendra won the Asian Games gold medal in Guangzhou last month by defeating Malaysia’s world No. 1 shuttlers Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong in the final.
Meanwhile, four Indonesian men’s doubles pairs progressed to today’s second round of the Hong Kong Super Series, the final Super Series tournament of the season.
Muhammad Ahsan and Bona Septano advanced with a 21-9, 21-7 victory over Macau’s Chan Io Chong and Lam Chi Man.
Alvent Yulianto Chandra and Hendra Aprida Gunawan progressed to the next round by ousting Liao Min Chun and Wu Chun Wei of Taiwan 21-19, 21-8.
Young pair Angga Pratama and Ryan Agung Saputra joined their seniors with a 21-9, 21-12 victory over Scotland’s Alistair Casey and American partner Mathew Fogarty, while former national team shuttlers Luluk Hadiyanto and Candra Wijaya earned their second-round berth by posting a 21-10, 21-15 win over Canada’s Adrian Liu and Derrick Ng.
